PR Archives - Page 21 of 24 - AHA Creative Strategies

PR Is More Vital Than Ever For Business

There was an interesting article in The Vancouver Sun last week (it also ran in the National Post, Montreal Gazette and several other daily newspapers) that says that PR is more vital than ever for businesses. Especially in the age of social media.

We knew that. We’ve known it for what seems like forever. This is a great time for communicators (aka PR people). An open, two-way conversation that is based on an organization living up to its promises and aligning to its values is what ethical PR people have been working towards for decades. For organizations with integrity and for organizations that want to improve, this is a great time to be in business. Your stakeholders and customers are ready to tell you what they want from you and how they feel. You just need to listen and want to authentically connect with them.

There is huge opportunity here for product development, customer research, and for connecting and partnering with your target market in a way that benefits everyone involved. And if something goes wrong, you can quickly identify the problem, address it and ensure that the people who have issue with your organization or product realize that you are engaged, care and are doing the right things.

Of course, for an organization that has something to hide, where the values are not aligned with the operation of the company and where they think they can “hide” or “spin” their way out of an issue – good luck. That mindset went out with Enron.

For reputation management and for proactive, positive PR for your organization you need a team that can develop a strategy, write a plan and execute using both traditional PR and social media tools.

If you want some assistance or support in this area, why not send us a quick email at info@ahacreative.com. We’d love to have a conversation!

We recently had a U.S. client visit us in Vancouver for planning meetings and media updates. At AHA, we’re very fortunate that we have clients in the U.S. and Canada – on both the east and west coasts. That AHA is based in Vancouver – with our head office in Gibsons (a short 40-minute ferry ride from Vancouver) isn’t an issue with our clients or with media. We communicate on a regular basis by telephone, email, and online chat. The world has evolved enough that where we are based isn’t relevant, the work we do is.

We hear it from clients, colleagues and friends all the time. Keeping up with what is going on in social media is overwhelming. Just recently, Facebook rolled out community pages and began to group people based on likes. They have also stopped supporting Facebook Lite, which appeared to be a Twitter-like approach to Facebook. Ning has announced that it will eliminate the free component of its service…and the list goes on and on. How can anyone keep up not only with the changes, but what they mean to your organization?

…Participating in social media is a great thing for some organizations. However, if your website is out-of-date, stagnant and doesn’t engage the community you want to connect with—social media might not be of much support to your efforts. There are many organizations that jump on the social media bandwagon before they make sure that the foundation of their online outreach—their website—works.

There is an interesting article in AdAge.com about the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s decision to continue to make a scheduled stop at a private resort in Labadee, Haiti. It’s a pretty strong article with a great deal of criticism from PR pros. As I was reading it, I was wondering where the other side was…there are no quotes from PR pros saying that they “get” why Royal Caribbean made the decision to continue to make stops in Labadee.

As I read the piece, I was thinking that I must not be reading this article right because I would have advised this cruise line to do exactly what they have done (I would have also prepared them to take some criticism about it and to be ready to solidly respond to critics with their rationale).